Naval warfare board game apparatus

ABSTRACT

The game board is divided by a grid into a plurality of home ports for a corresponding plurality of navies and a sea, each containing several grid cells. Each cell has an opening for accepting a marker denoting a ship. Each ship has a core portion provided with a plurality of upwardly opening vertical sockets denoting weapons. Preferably only some of the sockets open through the bottoms of the respective cores, the rest being dummies. Levers mounted under the game board connect each grid cell opening with its immediate neighbors. The levers are so positioned that when two ships are mounted in the openings of adjacent grid cells, and the core of an attacking one of the ships is oriented to place a completely open socket nearest the other ship, a firing pin jammed down through the completely open socket will strike one end of a lever whose other end is located under the other ship. The effect is to force the other ship up and out of its grid cell, in simulation of blowing that ship out of the water. Moves are governed by a set of rules and by a set of instruction cards. One or more islands may be placed on the board at the beginning of each game, obstructing some of the sea&#39;&#39;s grid cells, thus modifying the grid somewhat for each game.

United States Patent [191 Brummit [451 Oct. 21, 1975 1 NAVAL WARFARE BOARD GAME APPARATUS [76] Inventor: Lonnie B. Brummit, 126 Lyttle Drive, Newport News, Va. 23606 [22] Filed: Nov. 8, 1974 [21] Appl. No.: 522,292

[52] US. Cl. 273/134 GM; 273/134 C; 273/131 BA; 273/136 C; 273/137 AB; 273/ 137 AD [51] Int. Cl. A63F 3/00 [58] Field of Search 273/131, 134

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,295,436 2/1919 Cogswell 273/131 BA FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 16,470 1899 United Kingdom 273/131 BA 335 1907 United Kingdom 273/131 BA Primary Examiner-Delbert B. Lowe Attorney, Agent, or FirmCushman, Darby & Cushman [57] ABSTRACT The game board is divided by a grid into a plurality of VII/II A home ports for a corresponding plurality of navies and a sea, each containing several grid cells. Each cell has an opening for accepting a marker denoting a ship. Each ship has a core portion provided with a plurality of upwardly opening vertical sockets denoting weapons. Preferably only some of the sockets open through the bottoms of the respective cores, the rest being dummies. Levers mounted under the game board connect each grid cell opening with its immediate neighbors. The levers are so positioned that when two ships are mounted in the openings of adjacent grid cells, and the core of an attacking one of the ships is oriented to place a completely open socket nearest the other ship, a firing pin jammed down through the completely open socket will strike one end of a lever whose other end is located under the other ship. The effect is to force the other ship up and out of its grid cell, in simulation of blowing that ship out of the water. 1

Moves are governed by a set of rules and by a set of instruction cards.

One or more islands may be placed on the board at the beginning of each game, obstructing some of the seas grid cells, thus modifying the grid somewhat for each game.

7 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures US. Patant OCL 21, 1975 t y a y 3 Z 2/, ffl t pr 47 l awa w @Z n; v A f o 0 O O 0/0 nnMwO/ g 0 00000 0 0000000 J ooo ooooov N 00oo0o0 H 0000/ o o0000 o0 /fi00 000 0 000 flIoooo/ oo oooooooo moooo 0 0 000000 000 0 00 00000000000 00 0000000000000 0000 000000000 0000000000000000 00000000000000T00 00000000000 4% oooooooooooow 404V 0000 0000000 p40 0 000 0 /000 /0 0 fl p o o 0 ow\om 0M0 0%0 0 0 0 0 o 70 O 050 0 0 O O O O O O O O 060 0W0 0M fiw 0 o o o o 0 0 @\\|\d/ 050 00 0 om MWP 0 0 1 NAVAL WARFARE BOARD GAME APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The prior art includes many naval warfare simulation games. Examples are found in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.:

Cogswell, 1,295,436, Feb. 25, 1919; Szatrow, 2,313,303, Mar. 9, 1943; Senick, 3,113,777, Dec. 10, 1963; Upton, 3,831,944, Aug. 27, 1974.

Other battle-simulation board games include firing pins which are manipulated to score hits on opposing forces. Examples are found in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.:

de Bella, 2,684,247, July 20, 1954; Lanza, 3,618,953, Nov. 9, 1971; Gay, 3,632,110, .Ian.4, 1972.

The present invention provides relatively simple equipment which may be used in the play of a complex, engaging game which blends luck, care, strategy and an ability to remember.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The game board is divided by a grid into a plurality of home ports for a corresponding plurality of navies and a sea, each containing several grid cells. Each cell has an opening for accepting a marker denoting a ship. Each ship has a core portion provided with a plurality of upwardly opening vertical sockets denoting weapons. Preferably only some of the sockets open through the bottoms of the respective cores, the rest being dummies. Levers mounted under the game board connect each grid cell opening with its immediate neighbors. The levers are so positioned that when two ships are mounted in the openings of adjacent grid cells, and the core of an attacking one of the ships is oriented to place a completely open socket nearest the other ship, a firing pin jammed down through the completely open socket will strike one end of a lever whose other end is located under the other ship. The effect is to force the other ship up and out of its grid cell, in simulation of blowing that ship out of the water.

Moves are governed by a set of rules and by a set of instruction cards.

One or more islands may be placed on the board at the beginning of each game, obstructing some of the seas grid cells, thus modifying the grid somewhat for each game.

In the preferred embodiment, there are four home ports, each consisting of 16 grid cells. The remainder of the cells are in the open sea. Each player begins play with his port filled with ships and is charged with defending that port with at least one ship while attempting to capture all other ports by eliminating the opposing ships therefrom.

The principles of the invention will be further hereinafter discussed with reference to the drawing wherein a preferred embodiment is intended to exemplify, rather than limit, aspects of the invention as defined in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING In The Drawing FIG. 1 is a top plan view of the game board, depicted at the beginning of a typical game.

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a portion of the board showing an attacking and a defending ship in adjacent grid cell openings.

FIG. 3 is a front elevation view of one players status board, used to keep track of the angular orientation of the completely open sockets of that players ships.

FIG. 4 is a bottom plan view of an island.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A typical playing board 10 is shown in FIG. 1, having four home sectors 12 including ports 14, and four sea sectors 16. Each sector is made of a plurality of rectangular spaces or cells 18, each of which has a central vertical opening 20 therethrough.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 4, the first player in each game has an option of placing one or more islands 22 on the board, outside the port areas. Each island 22 has at least two depending pegs 24 which are received in openings 20 to mount that island on the board for the duration of that game. Each island, when in place, covers the openings of two or more cells, making those covered cells unuseable for the duration of that game. It should be apparent that this bonus for the first player can give him a slight edge over opponents, provided the islands are placed to favor his defense or facilitate his attack.

Referring to FIG. 2, each ship 28 includes an outer portion 30 which has a cylindrical central well 32 which extends completely therethrough, and a central core 34. The central core 34 is a cylindrical member provided with a radial shoulder 36 at its upper end. The cylindrical portion of the core slidingly fits in the well 32. An interfitting detent means 38, 40 is formed on the shoulder and on the ship outer portion 30. The detent means 38 can fit in any of four of the detent means 40, spaced at ninety degree intervals, so as to fix the core at any of four selected angular orientations with respect to the ship outer portion, about the longitudinal, vertical axis of the core.

Each core 34 is provided with four upwardly open sockets 42, but, preferably, not all of them are completely open through the core. In fact, by preference, each ship has three blind sockets 42a and but one completely open socket 42b. For variety, some of the ships, for instance, those designated as aircraft carriers and two of those designated as cruisers may each have cores with two blind sockets 42a and two completely open sockets 42b, permittingthese ships to fire in more than one direction without rotation of ship or core.

The status board (FIG. 3) 44 of each player has a plurality of groups 46 of openings 48a, 48b, 48c, 48d. The groups 46 correspond to the players ships and the openings 48a, etc., correspond to the sockets on each ships core. The player uses the status board to keep track of the angular orientation'of the completely open sockets 42b of his ships cores, by the placement of colored pegs 50 in the openings corresponding to the completely open sockets. Each time a ships core is reoriented with respect to that ship, the corresponding peg is correspondingly repositioned on the player's status board. Each players status board is provided with wings 52 to facilitate screening the peg placement from the line of vision of all opposing players.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, in each instance where an opening 20 lies adjacent to another opening 20, orthogonally of the board (i.e., East and West or North and South, but not diagonally), a see-saw like lever arrangement 60 is provided under the board to link the two openings for battle. Each arrangement 60 includes a fulcrum 62 having a pivot axis 64 which pivotally mounts a lever 66. Each lever 66 is long enough so that its opposite ends 68 directly underlie the two adjacent openings 20. From FIG. 2, it is clear that the levers are also short enough that if a ship is mounted in each of the two adjacent openings 20, and a firing pin 70 is inserted in each of the sockets of the core of one of the ships, the only instance in which the firing pin 70 will strike the end 68 of a lever, is that instance wherein (a) the socket is the nearest of the four to the opening 20 in which the ship being attacked is mounted and (b) the socket is a completely open one.

The vertical distance of the pivot axis 64 below the board is such that when a firing pin engages and pushes down one end 68 of a lever 66, the opposite end 68 of the lever 66 will move up a sufficient distance to eject the overlying ship from the board, simulating a sinking of the latter ship.

RULES The following is a discussion of exemplary rules for playing the game disclosed herein. The discussion is offered as part of the best mode contemplated by the inventor for making and using his invention. It should be realized that the rules are not an integral part of the invention and may be departed from without abandoning the principles of the invention.

OBJECT OF THE GAME The object of the game is to successfully defend ones own home port and to avoid loss of ones own ships, while attempting to capture all other parts and to eliminate others ships. The players may decide to have the game continue until all but one port is captured, or for a fixed time. In the former instance, the player defending the uncaputrued port is declared the winner; in the latter instance the player having the most ships remaining in play when the agreed-upon playing time has elapsed is declared the winner.

EQUIPMENT The game, as shown, is designed to be played by 2-4 players and to require roughly as much time for a game as does Monopoly, the Parker Bros. board game. The complement of equipment described is typical. For reasons of making the game more or less difficult, more or less elaborate or expensive, or to accommodate more players, the number of equipment items may be cutback or proliferated.

As shown, each navy consists of twenty ships, including four aircraft carriers. The remaining ships are divided between cruisers and destroyers. In each navy, with six exceptions, each ships core has but one completely open socket and three blind sockets. The exceptions are the four aircraft carriers and two of the cruisers, all of which each have two completely open sockets and two blind sockets.

The cores and ships are provided with a system of interfitting detent means so that the angular position of the core with respect to the ship can be reliably changed among a plurality (e.g., four) of predetermined angular positions, but will remain relatively fixed at a chosen position until intentionally changed to another.

For attacking and defending, the ships are aligned or north-south or east-west lines on the board. The board can be made with the greatest number of cells in the smallest total area if each cell barely circuits the ship received therein. Thus, for ease of play, when ships are neither attacking nor defending they may be turned to align with either diagonal of the cells which receive them. When about to attack or be attacked, the respective ships are then reoriented. To avoid confusion, ships should be moved clockwise when being diagonally placed and counter-clockwise when being reoriented.

The playing board is divided into eight differentlycolored sectors, including four sea sectors and four home sectors. Each sea sector is divided into three subsectors. Each home sector is divided into a port and territorial waters bordering the port on two sides. Typically each home sector and seasector contains 16 cells. All of the cells are uniquely numbered to permit retracing of plays.

The status board of each player has as many openings as each player has total ships, e.g., 20. The ships and status board openings are correspondingly numbered.

The stack of instruction cards contains a plurality of cards, each of which contains a written instruction. Typical instructions instruct the player drawing the particular card to change the direction of a ship or its core, to return a ship to port for repair, to remove a ship from the playing board for having been sunk, to prohibit further movement of or attack by a ship for a stated period, or the like, in order to cause unexpected changes in the odds favoring any player.

SETTING-UP PRIOR TO PLAY Each player chooses a color of navy and places the ships of that color in the correspondingly colored port. (In the preferred instance where there are more ships than grid cells in the port, the extras are temporarily laid aside, to be placed in port, one by one, when cells in port become unoccupied.)

Each player examines each of his ships in port carefully to see how many completely open sockets its core has, and their angular orientations relative to the respective ships. The player then inserts pegs in the corresponding sockets in his status board so that, whereas a casual lock at the ships on the playing board will not reveal which of the core sockets are completely open, each player can keep track of the orientations of the weapons of his own ships by referring to his own status board. (Accordingly, each time a core is relatively reoriented, the corresponding peg or pegs should be correspondingly moved on the players status board.)

BEGINNING PLAY During play, ships are moved in formations which range in size from one ship to five, as follows:

must be in ortho- -Continued No. of Ships Formation Limitations Number of Spaces in move On each turn, each player may move one, two or three formations of ships.

In moving a task force or fleet, ships may jump over other ships, and need not all be moved in the same sense. For instance, a task force of two ships may be moved two spaces per ship in one move, but one ship may be moved North and the other moved West, thus breaking the formation. When the time for the next turn comes, these ships are moved as single ships, unless they have by that time become part of another task force or fleet, or have been captured.

To begin play, the player selected by any means to move first, places either or both of the islands on the board, for instance partially blocking access to his port, if he wishes to, moves one to three formations and draws an instruction card. (After each players first turn, instruction cards are drawn only by a player who has just sunk anothers ship.) The player then builds a ship, i.e., places 2 17th ship in his port in a space vacated by his move. Each player builds one ship at the conclusion of each of his first four turns.

After any ship has been moved, but before firing upon any opposing ship, the moving player may reorient either the ship or its core. When a ships core is reoriented, the player should make a corresponding change on his status board. Some of the instruction cards may call for reorientation of either ships or their cores.

ATTACK When a move brings two opposing ships into orthogonally contiguous spaces, a sea battle must result.

First, the defending player inserts a firing pin down into the socket of his ship nearest the moving players ship. If that socket is a completely open one, the defense is successful, i.e., the moving players ship is sunk. The defending player then draws an instruction card, carries out the instruction and, only if no other ships are in position to attack his ship, is permitted to move his ship in any direction away from all opponents. (If the instruction card drawn by the successful defender permits the defender to move his ship to a space which would permit him to attack, he follows through, the new defender being permitted the first shot as aforesaid. However if the new defender sinks the former defender/new attacker, no card is drawn.) Then the moving player attacks or otherwise completes his turn.

If the attack is successful, the defender is sunk when the attacker plunges his firing pin down the nearest socket hole and blows the defenders ship out of the water. The attacker then draws an instruction card and carries out its instructions. (Notwithstanding that several attacks may be made per turn, only once is an instruction card drawn.) After a ship attacks, it may be moved an additional space in the same direction, and attack again, without changing ship or core orientation. One ship may attack a plurality of ships, as the attacker may insert the firing pin successfully in a plurality of the sockets of the attacking ships core. After the attacksare completed, the attacker may move all ships which have attacked one space away from all opposing ships. I v Q .It should now be apparent that the naval warfare board game as described hereinabove possesses each of the attributes set forth in the specification under the heading Summary of the Invention hereinbefore. Be-

. cause the Naval Warfare Board Game can be modified to some extent without departing from the principles of the invention as they have been outlined and explained in this specification, the present invention should be understood as encompassing all modifications as are within the spirit and scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A board game, including a board having a plurality of openings therethrough;

a plurality of movable markers shaped to rest upon the board and each to protrude down through a respective one of said openings;

at least two of said markers having means defining at least two upwardly open sockets formed therein, including at least one blind socket which terminates within the marker and at least one completely open socket which proceeds completely through the respective marker;

at least one lever arrangement positioned beneath the board and including a fulcrum fixing a horizontal pivot axis and a lever pivotally mounted to the fulcrum at the pivot axis, the lever having two opposite ends on opposite sides of the fulcrum, including one end disposed directly under one of said openings through the board, and another end disposed directly under another of said openings through the board;

and pin means which, when one of said markers is mounted in said one opening through the board and when another of said markers is mounted in said other opening, may be pushed down through said completely open socket of said one marker, for at least one angular orientation of said one marker upon the board, to engage one end of the lever so that end of the lever upon being pushed down will cause the opposite end of the lever to rise, engage the other of said markers from under the board and eject said other marker upwardly.

2. The board game of claim 1 wherein the relation of the closeness of the openings through the board to one another, the placement of the sockets in the markers and the length of the lever is such that unless the completely open socket through which the pin means is pushed is the socket of the one marker which lies nearest the opening through the board in which the other marker is mounted, the pin means will miss striking the one end of the lever.

3. The board game of claim 2 wherein the board is provided with several of said openings therethrough and wherein several of said lever arrangements are provided, each to operate among a different pair of said openings through the board.

4. The board game of claim 3 wherein the openings through the board are arranged in an orthogonal grid, so that each opening not on the boarder of the grid lies adjacent four others, and each such opening is served by four said lever arrangements, pairing it with each of the adjacent four openings through the board.

core rotatably received in the well; and detent means formed between the ship-shaped portion and the core in at least two different angular orientations of the latter.

7. The board game of claim 6 wherein each core is provided with four of said sockets set in a square pattern as seen in top plan, and wherein said detent means are arranged to permit the core to be keyed to the shipshaped portion at each of four different angular orientations which are equiangularly spaced about the core. 

1. A board game, including a board having a plurality of openings therethrough; a plurality of movable markers shaped to rest upon the board and each to protrude down through a respective one of said openings; at least two of said markers having means defining at least two upwardly open sockets formed therein, including at least one blind socket which terminates within the marker and at least one completely open socket which proceeds completely through the respective marker; at least one lever arrangement positioned beneath the board and including a fulcrum fixing a horizontal pivot axis and a lever pivotally mounted to the fulcrum at the pivot axis, the lever having two opposite ends on opposite sides of the fulcrum, including one end disposed directly under one of said openings through the board, and another end disposed directly under another of said openings through the board; and pin means which, when one of said markers is mounted in said one opening through the board and when another of said markers is mounted in said other opening, may be pushed down through said completely open socket of said one marker, for at least one angular orientation of said one marker upon the board, to engage one end of the lever so that end of the lever upon being pushed down will cause the opposite end of the lever to rise, engage the other of said markers from under the board and eject said other marker upwardly.
 2. The board game of claim 1 wherein the relation of the closeness of the openings through the board to one another, the placement of the sockets in the markers and the length of the lever is such that unless the completely open socket through which the pin means is pushed is the socket of the one marker which lies nearest the opening through the board in which the other marker is mounted, the pin means will miss striking the one end of the lever.
 3. The board game of claim 2 wherein the board is provided with several of said openings therethrough and wherein several of said lever arrangements are provided, each to operate among a different pair of said openings through the board.
 4. The board game of claim 3 wherein the openings through the board are arranged in an orthogonal grid, so that each opening not on the boarder of the grid lies adjacent four others, and each such opening is served by four said lever arrangements, pairing it with each of the adjacent four openings through the board.
 5. The board game of claim 1 further including at least one island element including a plate of sufficient area to cover less than all but at least two of the openings through the board when placed upon the board, and two pegs depending from the plate for receipt in any two correspondingly spaced openings through the board for rendering the covered openings unoccupiable by markers.
 6. The board game of claim 1 wherein each marker includes an outer ship-spaced portion having a central cylindrical well opening therethrough and a cylindrical core rotatably received in the well; and detent means formed between the ship-shaped portion and the core in at least two different angular orientations of the latter.
 7. The board game of claim 6 wherein each core is provided with four of said sockets set in a square pattern as seen in top plan, and wherein said detent means are arranged to permit the core to be keyed to the ship-shaped portion at each of four different angular orientations which are equiangularly spaced about the core. 